From Kew 10km to Font Romeu

Recent Results

Tetbury Wheelers 10m TT - 23.30min

3rd: Castle Combe Duathlon 

1st: Kew Gardens 10km and England Masters Championships

Upcoming Races

24 Oct: Leeds Abbey Dash 10km

30 Oct: Cambridge XC

07 Nov: Reading Half Marathon

12 Dec: Telford 10km

I have had a lack of racing over the summer due to a couple of niggling injuries. It has been positive that bigger races have opened up again, but frustrating as I was in decent shape before picking up an injury. Firstly, I had plantar Fascia problem for the whole of June. Luckily, I am able to get excellent Physio through the RAF, so we soon cleared this issue. However, since receiving my 2nd vaccine I have been struggling with Achilles Tendinitis. I don't know whether this came on as a side effect from the vaccine or if it was just a coincidence. I have heard of other runners with similar calf issues as well as higher heart rates and fatigue while running, perhaps another side effect of the vaccine. These symptoms may not be evident to those who weren't trying to train to a high level. For myself it is both Achilles, which is usual because unusual an injury occurs unilaterally. 

Cross Training

I have spent time at the Corsham gym working on leg strength, general conditioning, stretching, along with some indoor and outdoor cycling. To distract me from running while injured I set the cycling target to break 24min for 10miles and 1 hour for 25 miles. Fortunately, I am local to Caste Combe race circuit and can train on the smooth traffic free surface every Tue Evenings. I achieved the 10mile goal in Sep and went 23.30 at a local TT. I thought that was pretty good, however I didn't even make it into the top half of the field. Even the local TT riders are at a way different level to me. I ran out of time this season to attempt the 25m. Maybe some winter training on the turbo will help to try again next spring. 

Duathlon

Caste Combe also puts on some sprint Duathlons. In Sep my injury was improving, as well as my cycling so I entered the local race. I came in 1st on the 2 mile run, only by a second, and had a fast transition. I was quickly passed on the bike and dropped to 2nd. 5 laps later and I only fell to 3rd and was still in touch with the leaders. However, I couldn't close the gap and finished 3rd. But a better results than expected. Sam Hopton won (GB age group), and another GB age group athlete was 7sec ahead of me in 2nd. 

Park Run

The welcome return of Park Runs allowed me to use Sat mornings to get back into some sort of racing while still trying to manage the much improved Achilles. I went ones such as Chippenham, Melksham, Southwick and Banbury. To begin with I just wanted to get around and put a bit of pace down to test the legs. I ran around 18min and then lowered to 17.40, then 17, and now I'm around 16.30. All of these Park Runs are off-road, to reduce the impact and remove any time pressure. The volunteers are all great and it couldn't happen without them. However, on one new course for me, I was leading and turned right at a cone and a marshal. 2min later I was in a random field my myself and had to retrace my steps. At the cone, I was meant to do a U-Turn!. I asked the marshal why they let me carry on, 'I didn't realise you were doing park run' was the response - sigh. I know there are other park users, but there are 200+ of us all running around 9am. Never mind, it was still a good training run and I have been back since with eyes on the course record (plus they now have a sign saying 'U-Turn'). 

Kew 10km

Back in Jan 20, I qualified for the England Age group team (35-39). Now that I'm 35 in some races I'm classed as a vet. After obvious postponements, the Richmond Run Fest team (Tom Bedford), put on a great 10km event in Kew Gardens. The entry, also allowed friends and family to spectate and enjoy the gardens after the race. It was the first mass participation race I had done for a while and I still wasn't sure how my injury was. I felt ok in the warm up, but didn't have any idea of what pace I could run. I wasn't going for a time anyway, this was a race. I took off with two other runners and we was soon clear of the field. I didn't push the pace, instead I let them dictate and sat in until 5km. We went thought in about 16.20. The course was very scenic and flat, however there was lots of twist and turns. 

At about 6km I decided to push the pace out of one of the turns, for at least 60sec to see how they other 2 responded. Neither went with me and I had a gap of 5 or so seconds. I still wasn't sure how my legs would hold up. I knew I lacked some training and wasn't in the 30min form that I was in the spring. I decided that I would work out of every sharp 90 degree corner for 10 sec and then settle again. In the last 10min I also broke it down so that I would do a 10sec effort at the top of every minute.  

This helped me to stay focused and to keep a good leg turn over. I probably didn't go much faster, but it helped mentally to break it down like this. I crossed the line 1st in around 32.30, which on the twisty course I was happy with. The other 2 battled to the line about 10 to 15sec behind me. 

I was pleased to have unexpectedly won the event and gained my 1st England Age Group Masters title. There was no official presentation, but I was congratulated and given a trophy by Steph Davis and Dave Bedford

Altitude Training in Font Romeu

I arrived about 4 days ago in Font Romeu. I had a family wedding at a Chateaux in the South of France and then made my way to the mountains via trains and buses. I have 2 weeks here to gain as much fitness as possible before returning to the UK for races and winter training. So far the trails, weather and training has been amazing. I took it easy for the first 3 days and scouted out the local routes and altitude training centre. On the 4th day I did 8x800m on the track. I was pleased with the number of reps and it was harder than usual, as one would expect at 1800m My pace was more like HM than the 10km pace. This is my first time at altitude, so am being cautious to see how my body responds. But even without the altitude the focus on training and recovery on a training camp alone is enough to give big improvements. I will provide a more in depth blog on the camp in the next blog in a couple of weeks.